Amazing culinary feats performed in my kitchen as I learn how to cook just about everything without recipes and pass that knowledge on to you. (If you came here looking for Dejamo's Distracted, you came to the right place.)

Thursday, September 30, 2010

A Word about (Fresh) Lima Beans

YUM! And here's another word: DOUBLE YUM!!

Ok, that was two words but I don't care. That's how excited I am about them. I had a specific shopping list for the Green Market yesterday, something I don't usually have. I usually wander around and grab anything (and everything) that catches my fancy, but this time I was on a mission. And I was finding everything I needed, including the fresh cranberry beans I wanted so I could make Lamb and Cabbage Stew with Fresh Beans with, you know, fresh beans instead of the canned kidney beans I used the first time I made it. (I actually have lamb this time, too.)

I also had in mind a tabbouleh-style salad to make for work lunches when I got home last night from what was going to be a late night without much time to cook. I had half a bunch of broccoli rabe and a fresh tomato and I decided that would be a good way to use them. I didn't make the decision in enough time to soak some chickpeas, so I decided I would buy a can at the grocery store on the way home.

And then I saw that they had fresh lima beans right next to the cranberry beans at one of my favorite stalls. Fresh beans would cook up quickly and didn't need soaking so I thought it might be an interesting experiment to use the lima beans instead of buying canned chickpeas. So I bought some of those as well.

When I got home last night, I put some water on to boil and washed and shelled the beans. They only took about ten minutes to cook, then I drained them and put them in a bowl to cool a little while I prepared the rest of the salad.

I put the bulgur in a bowl and started chopping an onion. I decided I had better try one of the lima beans to make sure they were done, so I took one of the biggest beans and put it in my mouth.

Where it melted. Like butter. So I ate another one, just to be sure. Melted. Butter. Soft, mushy, buttery, with only the mildest flavor (unlike the overpowering flavor of their dried counterparts), I could not stop eating them. They never made it into the salad. I ate the whole bowl's worth, one at a time, with my fingers. I didn't even salt them, they were that good.

So my tabbouleh salad is bean-less. No matter - it was worth it. I only hope they still have some on Saturday morning, because I definitely need some more of those before they are gone.

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About Me

I started a knitting blog in 2005, but it quickly evolved into a cooking blog. Since then I have been learning how to be a cook; that is, how to cook on the fly, without having to rely on recipes. I'm not always successful, but I'm always learning and hope to pass what I've learned along to others who are interested in learning how to cook without fear.